


popsicles

by demipancake



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Apartment AU, Fluff, M/M, i legally cannot write angst i'm sorry, idk what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 16:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17901293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demipancake/pseuds/demipancake
Summary: Ash buys too many popsicles, and Clemont slowly falls in love.





	popsicles

Clemont sighs as he puts the last cardboard box down in the future living room of his new apartment. He glances around and out the window, gazing at the city view for a few seconds. Bonnie left ten minutes ago to catch up with a friend who lives in the city, and of course she left the heaviest boxes for him to carry. Something about getting in shape? Clemont wasn't really listening.

Finding the apartment hadn't been easy - after all, it had to be close to the college, and given how popular just staying in a dorm was, finding one close was tough. Lumiose City isn't the cheapest place for an apartment, either. They were lucky to find one as close and inexpensive as they did - and even then, it's a twenty minute walk to campus, and wasn't the best quality. Clemont wasn't great at walking - or, running, rather.

Luckily, that's all over now, and all that was left was to unpack.

To… unpack.

He stands in the middle of the room, surrounded by a sea of cardboard. Just moving everything up here was a task and a half - maybe he could just find the sleeping bag he had _somewhere_ in these boxes and order take out.

He's about to do just that when there's a sudden knock at the front door, and he jumps. Clemont picks his way through the maze and opens it.

There's a man standing in the hallway with a bright coloured box tucked under his arm. He has dark, messy hair that doesn't look like it's been brushed in weeks and tan skin, and he's wearing a hat indoors, for some reason. He has tiny lightning bolt marks on both his cheeks, underneath giant chocolate-y eyes which light up when he sees Clemont.

“Hey! You must be the new neighbour, right?” he says, tilting his head to one side in a way that was far too cute for Clemont's heart. “I'm Ash. Ash Ketchum.”

“Cl-Clemont.” The scientist in question desperately wishes his heart would stop beating so loudly - he's sure Ash can hear it.

“Nice to meetcha, Clemont!” Ash grins, showing off pure white teeth. “Can I come in?”

“Well, I, uh… haven't started unpacking yet.”

Ash squints and his nose scrunches up adorably. “Do you have a fridge?”

Clemont blinks. “Uh… yes? Don't all the apartments in this building come with fridges?”

“Well, yeah, but is it working?”

“I think so.”

“Great! Because these popsicles are gonna melt otherwise,” Ash says, holding up the box under his arm so Clemont can read what it is. Sure enough, it's a box of popsicles - three different flavours: pineapple, berry, and… banana.

“Banana flavoured popsicles?” he asks sceptically.

“I like them.”

Fair enough, Clemont thinks, then realises they're still standing out in the hallway and steps aside to let Ash in. He grins and adjusts his hat as he walks in, weaving around the boxes looking for the kitchen.

“So why did you come to my apartment with a box of popsicles, exactly?” Clemont asks, following Ash to the kitchen to find him stuffing the box into the freezer.

“Well, I bought too many popsicles, and I was gonna give them to Shauna, but I've already given her a box this month,” he explains, shutting the freezer with a flourish. “And then I remembered that you were moving in today, so I thought I'd bring them to you!”

“Oh, well, uh… thank… you?” Clemont says, wondering whether he should be grateful for someone dumping their accidental purchase on him.

“You're welcome!” Ash gives a toothy grin, blissfully unaware of Clemont's questioning tone. He claps and rubs his hands together. “So, what box are we gonna start with?”

“What?”

“It's too late to back out of this,” Ash says teasingly, and Clemont can feel his face getting warmer just at the tone. “I'm helping you unpack, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.”

Clemont looks into Ash's eyes and sees he is one hundred percent serious about this, and there really is nothing he can do to stop him.

He sighs. “Okay, well, I guess we should start with… the bed?”

Ash's face lights up, as if he wasn't actually expecting to get this far, and races off to the living room, before poking his head back around the doorframe. “Which box is the bed in?”

Clemont sighs to himself, smiling, and follows.

\---

He's been in Lumiose for one and a half months now, and he and Ash have somehow become good friends.

He's gotten over his infatuation for him, too. Really, he has. Yeah, he's cute, but he doesn't have a crush on him or anything.

Seriously.

...Maybe.

In any case, Ash had realised that Clemont had somehow never seen his apartment before. Which is why he was standing outside of it slightly nervously, while loud meowing came from inside.

“Come on, buddy, can't I have one friend over?” drifted Ash's voice through the door. The meowing grew louder, until eventually there was the sound of a door clicking shut, and the mewling was muffled.

The front door swings open to reveal Ash standing there, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry, that was my cat.”

Clemont smiles back. “I love cats.”

“He's having a bad day.” Ash glances at the door next to him. Ominous scratching noises come from it, along with the occasional mewl. Ash shakes his head fondly, before gesturing for Clemont to come in.

Ash's apartment is a lot like him, in some ways - there's unorganised clutter everywhere you look, including a few dead houseplants and a Pikachu plush on the coffee table. The couch is red, a few shades lighter than the tone of his cap - or, caps, seeing as Clemont could see at least two strewn about haphazardly in this room alone. There's a few awards for generally doing amazing things for the community (as if he couldn't get any more perfect, Clemont thinks, before hastily wiping that thought from his brain) across the shelves, as well as dog supplies, for some reason.

“Take a seat, make yourself at home!” Ash calls out, heading straight to the kitchen and leaving Clemont alone in the living room. He sits down, and realises there's a photograph lying on the coffee table. It's a picture of Ash and a golden retriever wearing a highlighter yellow vest.

“I got popsicles!” Ash sings, entering back into the living room. Clemont snaps his head up and smiles as he sees Ash holding an already opened popsicle in one hand and a banana one in the other. They're weird, but he's begun to like the taste. Ash hands him his popsicle and plops down on the couch next to him, sucking on his own lolly.

Clemont, struggling to open his, nods to the Pikachu plush. “So, you like Pokémon?”

Ash laughs, accidentally touching his nose with his popsicle and squeaking. “My cat is named Pikachu,” he says sheepishly after he recovers.

“Oh my God, that's adorable.”

“He _looks_ like a Pikachu, I'm telling you!”

“I haven't seen him, I can't say!” Clemont laughs, finally managing to get his banana popsicle open.

“He's very friendly! Just not so trusting of strangers.” Ash gestures to the door, where scratching sounds still emanated. “I can let him out if you like.”

“Oh, that'd be great-” Clemont starts, but Ash is already halfway to the door. He opens it and a golden blur springs out and skids to a halt in front of Clemont. He blinks.

He really does look like a Pikachu.

He's a golden tabby with big brown eyes and stripes zigzagging across his back. He's very fluffy, and his tail almost looks like a feather. He sniffs at Clemont's leg, before jumping up onto the couch to scope him out better. He seems to deem him okay, and rubs his head against Clemont's hand.

“Aw, he likes you!” Ash says, having returned from letting Pikachu out. “I told you he was friendly.”

“I didn't even know you were allowed pets,” Clemont says, stroking Pikachu's back with one hand as he purrs.

“Oh, I pay the extra fee. Pikachu means a lot to me, I don't mind it.”

Pikachu, as if knowing what his owner was talking about, steps forward and leans all the way off the edge of the couch in order to rub his face against Ash's leg. Ash leans down to stroke him, and Clemont feels something in his chest spark at the soft smile he wears on his face.

“You like dogs?” he says after a moment, gesturing to the photo on the table. Ash’s eyes light up.

“Oh! Yeah, I’m a service dog trainer!” He smiles as he picks up the photo. “That’s Kaya, she graduated recently.”

“...Graduated?”

“Yeah, that’s what we call it when a puppy finishes their training.” He smiles, as if remembering something. “One of the other trainers said if she didn’t make it, he’d adopt her himself.”

“I’d adopt her if I had the chance,” Clemont says. Ash laughs, and he feels everything is right with the world.

\---

Clemont hasn't exited his apartment in three days, except to go to classes.

He has good reason to though - he has a physics test this week and he doesn't wanna fail. He has enough food to last him a few more days - he has to study or he might not pass, and if he doesn't pass it'll reflect on his overall grade, and _then_ what would he do?

There's a sudden loud knock coming from the front door and Clemont jumps. He glances to his notes on diffraction grating and sighs before getting up to open the door.

As soon as the door opens an inch, Ash is barrelling into the apartment with a box in his hands and determination in his eyes.

“Hey Clemont! I brought friends.”

“What?”

Two girls walk in behind Ash, one of them with short, dirty blonde hair and another with brown in pigtails. He vaguely recognises them and remembers they share one of the bigger apartments above him.

Another girl skips in at the end of the group, and Clemont does a double take. “Bonnie?”

“That’s right!” Bonnie smirks, moving past Clemont to get to the living room. “Ash called me and told me to come over.”

“What? Why? How does he even _know_ you?”

“He’s friends with Max!”

Clemont groans. “Of course he is.”

He follows everyone through to the living room, where they apparently had already made themselves at home. Bonnie already had her feet on the coffee table. Ash comes out of the kitchen without the box, along with five popsicles that Clemont swore weren’t in his freezer before. He hands Clemont, still in shock, a banana one (because of course he does) and gives the others to the girls, keeping one for himself.

“What… is going on?” Clemont asks in a daze, banana popsicle in his hand.

“You haven’t been outside in three days, we’ve come to drag you out,” Ash explains, lifting his pineapple popsicle in Clemont’s direction.

“But… I have a physics test-”

“Doesn’t matter! You’re coming with us. Or at _least_ taking a break.”

Clemont stares at the popsicle in his hand and contemplates kicking them all out and going back to his practice worksheet. Then he sighs and smiles, unwrapping the popsicle and gesturing to the girls he didn’t know. “So… who exactly are you?”

“Oh! Sorry.” The brown haired one laughs around her popsicle. “I’m Shauna!”

“Serena’s my name,” the other says, bowing her head slightly in Clemont’s direction.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Clemont, though you uh, probably knew that already.”

“Alright! Let’s go,” Ash says, dumping his popsicle stick in the bin (how did he eat it so fast?). He pretty much races to the door and swings it open, leaving the rest of the group in the dust. Everyone else laughs and goes to follow him. Clemont takes a last look back at his physics revision, then laughs softly to himself and walks out the front door, locking it behind him.

The entire group except Ash still have their popsicles, though Bonnie’s is almost gone. Serena falls to the back of the group, next to Clemont.

“So… Ash is pretty cool, huh?” she says, and Clemont gets the feeling she’s trying to imply something, but he doesn’t know what.

“Yeah, he’s awesome.” he says warily, wondering what she’s getting at.

She squints at him, and sighs, as if knowing he wasn’t going to get it. “I used to have a crush on him too, y’know.”

He jumps and squeaks in surprise. Ash and Shauna look back at them questioningly and Serena gives them a thumbs up. Clemont can feel his face getting warmer. “I don’t- what? I don’t have a crush on him!” he hisses, trying to not let Ash hear.

“It’s written all over your face. I’m so sorry.” Serena shakes her head slightly and smiles. “He is the worst person to have a crush on.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“He’s oblivious to everything around him unless it’s an animal.” She claps him lightly on the shoulder and starts to move back to walking beside Shauna and Bonnie. “Good luck.”

Clemont looks at the back of her head blankly for a minute. Ash glances back at him. “Hey Clemont, are you okay? Your face is kinda red,” he says, and Clemont shakily smiles at him and nods, unable to speak. He smiles back, and turns around.

Clemont stares at him for a second, then buries his gradually growing more and more red face in the hand not holding the popsicle.

He _absolutely_ has a crush on Ash Ketchum.

\---

Ash bursts into the apartment, and Clemont, having been walking near the door, yelps in surprise and jumps a foot in the air.

“Clemont! Clemont Clemont Clemont-”

“That is _not_ what I gave you that key for!”

“Sorry, but _look at these!_ ” Ash shoves a box in Clemont’s face and he takes it and holds it away so he can read it. His face slowly morphs into a mix of disgust and intrigue.

“ _Peanut butter banana popsicles?_ ”

“Exactly.”

“Wh-” Ash doesn’t wait for Clemont to finish his sentence, instead grabbing his hand and dragging him through to the living room. He’s been holding my hand a lot recently, Clemont realises.

Ash lets go of Clemont’s hand and grabs the box from him. He tosses him one of the popsicles, taking one for himself and throwing the box on the coffee table. He plops down on the couch and tears off the wrapping.

Clemont sits down next to him and unwraps his one, watching as Ash lifts his to his mouth and takes a bite out of it. He immediately makes a face.

“It’s not… bad?” he says, uncertainly. “These flavours should not be cold.”

“Why do you bite into them?” Clemont shakes his head fondly and gives his popsicle an experimental lick. “I like it.”

They eat them in silence and Ash finishes his in under a minute like usual. He taps his finger on his leg a few times before getting up.

“Is this the only reason you came over?” Clemont asks amusedly, and Ash grins sheepishly.

“It was, but do you wanna go do something?”

Clemont tilts his head. “Like what?”

“I dunno, like, go get a milkshake or something.”

“We just had popsicles.”

Ash grins. “Your point?”

Clemont sighs fondly, finishing off his lolly and grabbing the wrappers and Ash's stick to put in the bin. “Okay, let's go.”

Ash blinks. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, sounds fun.”

Ash smiles even wider, and races out the door. Clemont isn't too worried about catching up - Ash doesn't have a car and can't drive, so he won't get very far.

Sure enough, Ash is waiting impatiently next to Clemont's car, and hops in immediately as soon as he unlocks it. Clemont laughs and gets in the driver's side.

“Can we go to Cafe Soleil?” Ash asks.

“What? That's on the other side of the city.”

“Yeah, but they have the _best_ milkshakes.”

Clemont knows this is not a fight he can win, so he drives to Cafe Soleil without complaint.

They tumble into the warm cafe, and Ash orders two milkshakes to go.

(“Clemont, what do you want?”

“Uh… strawberry's fine.”

“One strawberry milkshake please, and uh… do you do banana?”

“I'm sorry, we don't.”

“Chocolate's fine, then.”)

“Clem.” Ash whines when they get out of the shop. “Clem.”

“What?”

“It's almost sunset.”

“...Yeah?”

“Can we go out to the firefly field?” Ash's eyes sparkle, and Clemont doesn't even know what the firefly field is, but he knows they're going there.

“The what?”

“The firefly field! Have you never been there?”

“...No?” Clemont says, wondering if he'll get home tonight or spend eternity in the “firefly field”.

“Come on, you _have_ to go!” Ash exclaims, tugging on Clemont's shirt sleeve.

“Okay, we can go! You're gonna have to give me directions though,” Clemont says, but Ash is already back in the car.

They drive out of the city, sipping on their milkshakes (well, in Ash's case his milkshake was gone before they left the street) and Ash giving directions.

“This is the place!” he says happily, and Clemont stares out the window at a seemingly random cornfield. The sun was setting at this point, and it was getting dark already. Ash jumps out of the car and Clemont follows, slightly bewildered.

“What's up with this… random cornfield?”

“We gotta wait for the sun to go down.” Ash sits on the bonnet of the car and gazes up at the yellow-orange sky. Clemont sits next to him, but can't focus on the sun and keeps catching himself staring at Ash, and the way the sun reflects on his face.

The sun slowly goes down over the horizon as they watch, until it disappears completely. Ash sighs happily, then jumps down off the car and goes to the fence of the cornfield.

“What are you-” Clemont starts, then gasps as Ash hops the fence and fireflies spring up around his feet. “...doing?”

Ash grins at him, the light from the lightning bugs illuminating his face. He runs his hand over the stems and tiny lights spring up from under his fingers.

It's mesmerising.

“Come on, Clem, it's fine!” Ash spins in a circle, lights floating around him and making him look like a god commanding his army of angels.

In the back of his mind, Clemont realises this is trespassing, but he doesn't really care. With some difficulty, he climbs over the fence, and the fireflies respond to his hands as well.

Ash cheers, and suddenly grabs his hand and tugs him through the field. They run along, laughing as bugs fly up behind them, until they eventually collapse in the middle of the stems.

Their laughter slowly dies out and they fall into a comfortable silence. The stars are starting to show now, and Clemont wonders if he'll ever have the energy to get up.

\---

Clemont hovers nervously outside Ash's apartment with a brightly coloured box. He keeps going to knock, but then thinking better of it.

Eventually, he manages to do three quick knocks on the door, then immediately panics as he hears Ash's voice on the other side call out “Coming!”

This was a mistake.

He has to wait a bit for Pikachu to be put in the other room, but eventually Ash opens the door and grins when he realises who it is.

“Hey Clem! What's up?”

“Uh, I…” Clemont's having a lot of second thoughts about this idea, and none of them are good. “I have to talk to you about something.”

Ash blinks, face becoming serious, and he seems to notice the box. “Is that… a box of popsicles?”

“Y-yeah, it's, uh… it's just to lighten the mood? I guess?” He laughs awkwardly. “I'm so sorry, this was a bad idea-”

“No, it's okay!” Clemont glances up at Ash. He's looking at him with a weird expression on his face. “Come in, uh, make yourself at home.”

Clemont shuffles into the living room, putting the box on the coffee table, next to the picture of Ash and Kaya that still hasn't been moved. They both sit on the couch, slightly more stiff than normal.

“So, what did you wanna talk to me about?” Ash asks, tilting his head (adorably) slightly.

Clemont can feel his face start to heat up already, and he hasn't even started talking yet. “Okay, well, uh…” He takes a deep breath. “I… like you,” he almost whispers. “I really like you. Like, romantically, I mean,” he adds hastily, knowing how dense Ash could be sometimes. “And I don't- you don't have to pretend to like me back, or anything, and I'm sorry, and I've probably made this more awkward than it has to be, and-”

Clemont is cut off by Ash's lips on top of his.

His brain barely registers the fact _Ash is kissing me,_ before Ash is pulling away, panic in his eyes.

“I'm sorry! I didn't mean- I just-”

Clemont shuts him up by kissing him again, and one hand goes up and tangles in his mess of dark curls. Ash starts kissing back after a moment of shock, hand caressing Clemont's cheek.

Ash tastes like banana popsicles and the off-brand peppermint toothpaste he uses. Like fireflies in a field surrounded by stars, and the cold, cold wind blowing through the stalks.

They break apart and Clemont looks into Ash's widened eyes. He imagines his own expression isn't much better.

“I really like you too,” Ash whispers, and Clemont kisses him again.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr - @demi-panoramic / @outlinesareabitch  
> twitter - @demidemipancake


End file.
